--------- Git usage --------- All stages of :term:`FiPy` development are archived in a Git repository at GitHub_. You can browse through the code at https://github.com/usnistgov/fipy and, using a `Git client`_, you can download various tagged revisions of :term:`FiPy` depending on your needs. .. attention:: Be sure to follow :ref:`INSTALLATION` to obtain all the prerequisites for :term:`FiPy`. Git client ========== A ``git`` client application is needed in order to fetch files from our repository. This is provided on many operating systems (try executing ``which git``) but needs to be installed on many others. The sources to build Git, as well as links to various pre-built binaries for different platforms, can be obtained from http://git-scm.com/. Git branches ============ In general, most users will not want to download the very latest state of :term:`FiPy`, as these files are subject to active development and may not behave as desired. Most users will not be interested in particular version numbers either, but instead with the degree of code stability. Different branches are used to indicate different stages of :term:`FiPy` development. For the most part, we follow `a successful Git branching model`_. You will need to decide on your own risk tolerance when deciding which stage of development to track. A fresh copy of the :term:`FiPy` source code can be obtained with:: $ git clone https://github.com/usnistgov/fipy.git An existing Git checkout of FiPy can be shifted to a different `` of development by issuing the command:: $ git checkout in the base directory of the working copy. The main branches for FiPy are: ``master`` designates the (ready to) release state of FiPy. This code is stable and should pass all of the tests (or should be documented that it does not). ``develop`` designates the latest state of code destined for the next release. This code should be stable and pass all tests, but may be awaiting new features or bug fixes before merging to ``master`` and formal release. Past releases of FiPy are tagged as ``version-x_y_z`` which designates a released version x.y.z. Any released version of FiPy will be designated with a fixed tag: The current version of FiPy is |version|. Tagged releases can be found with:: $ git tag --list Any other branches will not generally be of interest to most users. .. note:: For some time now, we have done all significant development work on branches, only merged back to ``develop`` when the tests pass successfully. Although we cannot guarantee that ``develop`` will never be broken, you can always check our build status page http://build.cmi.kent.edu:8010 to find the most recent revision that it is running acceptably. For those who are interested in learning more about Git, a wide variety of online sources are available, starting with the `official Git website`_. The `Pro Git book`_ :cite:`ProGit` is particularly instructive. .. _official Git website: http://git-scm.com/ .. _Pro Git book: http://git-scm.com/book .. _GitHub: https://github.com/usnistgov/fipy .. _a successful Git branching model: http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/